Who is like me?

 

Tuesday, December 12, 2023


Psalms 76; 82

Isaiah 44:6-23

2 Thessalonians 1


Who is like me?


Idolatry comes in many forms. Sometimes it is a physical object that is treated as special. Other times it is more abstract; an idea, or a purpose, which is given special properties to save the one who worships it. This section of Isaiah gives us a set of principles by which we can identify idols both in our own lives and in the wider world. It also tells us how to defeat them.


The set of principles that we can use to identify an idol is to compare it to a piece of wood. In this section, God (through Isaiah) speaks of the man who takes a piece of wood, uses some of it to warm his home, uses another bit to cook up a roast dinner, and takes the last bit and worships it as a god. God is not like anything or anyone else. If we think it is God, we should look to see if it can be used for anything else – in which case it is an idol, and we should stop worshipping it. God is supreme, and we cannot use Him for our own personal purposes. “Who is like me?” asks God, “I am the first and the last.” God is before all things, and He will bring all current things to an end. This is why we worship God, because He is so far above anything we can think or do. God is wonderful, and is an endless source of wonder. We don’t need to control God; it is enough to watch and admire Him.


God also gives us a refreshingly liberating way to respond to idols and idolatry: sarcasm and dark humour. A piece of wood? Which came from a tree? A tree that only exists because the one true God created it and allows it to continue and exist in the first place? It is a joke that anyone in the material or spiritual universe would be so foolish as to think they could be greater than God. We can laugh at God’s enemies, because God is so good to us that we can rest in the promise of our redemption.


A preacher once summarised the gospel as “kill the dragon, get the girl”. Our knight in shining armour, having destroyed death and Satan, takes off His helmet, and meets us with a face from which we cannot tear our gaze. A fantasy novelist once wrote a story about a king who returns from exile and saves the free world as a picture of the gospel message: The Lord of the Rings. We have a true King, and we know Him personally, and we gladly follow wherever He leads, secure in the knowledge that He is victorious in everything He does. His name is Jesus, and He is the first and the last; besides Him there is no god.

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